After One Month My Take On 09

Well it's now been a month or so since 09 made its way onto my pc and here's my ups and downs for SI's new FM adventure.

1) 3D Match Engine

Had to be the biggest draw for me purchasing this year pre-demo. I think for the amount of time they had and quality of 3d grade was above average. My PC is actually below specs and 3D is somewhat smooth. The drawback (actualy huge drawback) is that there are no auto zoom features (like a slow motion zoom to target-man in the open receiving a cross for header goal)and the overall view no matter what setting you try and use are just too far away. Grade: 7.5

2) Transfer Changes

Sorry to say i have never really had any problems (or just don't know enough about football to tell) with the transfer system. So I will have to refrain from grading this item. Grade: --

3) The WWFAN Tactic Dictionary Match Engine

Well have to say SI has taken tactics to an engineer level. I think we should actually receive some sort of college credit for reading the Tactical Theorems and Frameworks '09 and actually understanding 50% of what he's saying . This is a tough grade for me because I am a huge fan of in-depth sport management gaming but man this may actually be a bit over the top. I do have to say that in the last week or so I have started really digging deep into what frameworks has to say and implementing it into my game. Result is a definate +. I think to survive in the new FM era you will soon discover that being a tweaker is a good thing. Although time consuming I like it. Grade: 8.3

4) Assistant Manager Role

In 09 the Asst Manager now gives you in-game input as to what decisions he thinks may help your team. I have followed his advice and have been torn to shreads using it. I go with out his advice and stay to my gameplan may lose but never a blowout. Seems I never agree on his subsitution advice. Yeah a player may be below the 75 mark on fatigue at the 70 min mark but when he's been putting out all game and i have a dud at 83 that hasn't done diddly the 83 gets subbed everytime. Sorry Aman but i hate players with lots of energy because all they've done the whole match is pick their nose. Grade:6.5

5) Media

This in my opinion is this years biggest failure. I don't know the size of the team that SI had to use to put this together but they could have been used in the automation of opponent instructions, 3D dept or in-depth bug testing. Wont spend too much time on this as I really think too much time has already been spent on it. Grade:3.0

6) Time Consumption

While the media addition wasn't needed the time to actually complete a season is grinding. While I have been somewhat slow at work as of late and that gives me a little more time to do somethings I normally wouldn't have, I really haven't had the time to spend on 09 that it takes to be succesful. I did get impatient and had my AM take over a few games to fast forward a bit of the season. I know i gave the TT&F a good grade but it falls into the catch-22 category being it causes much time consumption. The opposition instructions needs work. I (like most i would think) have a default plan for most opponents. What erks me is when the opponent change players from one position to another and here I am hard tackling a striker that was a MC five minutes ago. I don't have the time to check every player every 5 minutes hopefully SI can automate this in the future. In the preferences tab give opponent instructions to given position. If you want to override it for a stud opponent then the auto slider gets overridden by user. Grade 6.0

These graded features are the ones that were important/unimportant to me for 09's upgrade. While the game is still certainly an elite game i will use my 08's grade as a starting base for this years overall grade. AM role score and media wont be used for equating overall score because it really doesn't have an effect on the game. I have am for media & i just dont listen to the idiot during the game.

FM08 grade: 9.2

3D Match Engine Grade: 7.5

The WWFAN Tactic Dictionary Match Engine Grade: 8.3

Assistant Manager Role Grade: 6.5

Media Grade: 3.0

Time Consumption Grade: 6.0

FM 09 Upgrade Score: 6.26

FM 09 Overall Score: 7.75

The time consumption grade was what gave 09 in my view their biggest hit. I think as i play more the WWFAN grade may increase a bit however. With tweaking becoming an absolute there has to be some things of old cut out or automated (opposition instructions a huge start). 3d needs at least a zoom feature badly.